I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communication devices in general, and to a method and apparatus for displaying the amount of time spent on specific types of calls originated from a wireless communication device in particular.
II. Description
Wireless communication devices, such as cellular telephones, are widely used as a replacement for conventional telephone systems. With a wireless communication device, a user may place local, long distance or international telephone calls without the need for physical connection between the wireless communication device and a central switching office, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Each country has specific telephone number assignments and rules for dialing telephone numbers within that country. These pre-designated rules are referred to herein as dialing rules or plans. For example, the United States uses seven digits to represent a local exchange and telephone number. To place a long distance call within the United States, the user must dial a 1, followed by the destination area code and telephone number. Thus, it can be seen that the dialing plan for the United States require a predetermined sequence of digits for local calls, domestic long distance calls and international long distance calls. It should be noted that countries other than the United States typically use a different dialing plan.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,193, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CALL RESTRICTION IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICE, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated fully herein by reference, discloses and describes a system and method for controlling transmissions from a wireless communication device. The system uses a pre-designated calling plan and an enable signal having enabled and disabled states to selectively enable call origination form the wireless communication device. A keypad is provided for through which a user generates keypad data indicative of a destination telephone number. The system also includes a storage area for storing data related to the calling plan. A processor accepts and uses keypad data to access the data storage area. The data may be stored in the storage area in the form of a state data table indicative of a present machine state of the wireless communication device. The present state of the device is altered in response to each entry of keypad data by a user.
In many instances, a wireless communications device user is charged a different amount of money per minute by a wireless communication service provider for each type of call, local, domestic long distance, international long distance, etc., originated from his wireless communication device. It is known to provide timers for tracking the length of an incoming or outgoing call on a wireless communication device, as well as cumulative timers for tracking the total length of all calls received or originated from the wireless communication device for various periods of time. These timers do little however, to help a user track the number of minutes spent on each type of call and the likely cost of those calls.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide users of wireless communication devices some means of tracking the amount of time that has been spent on different types of telephone calls.
The present invention is embodied in a system and method to track the length of time spent by a user on different types of transmissions from a wireless communication device to a central controller. The system includes a keypad that is operated by a user to generate keypad data indicative of a destination telephone number. The system also includes a storage area to store data related to the calling plan. Data is stored in the storage area by a processor in the form of a state data table that indicates the present machine state of the wireless communications device. The present machine state of the device is updated in response to each entry of keypad data, and is indicative of the type of call that would be originated if the keypad data string was processed as a call at that moment. The system also includes a call timer that is initiated when a complete telephone number has been entered by the user and the telephone call is originated. Finally, the system includes various memory locations wherein the cumulative total length of time spent on specific types of telephone call is stored. Preferably, a display is provided to allow the user to view how much time has been spent on each type of telephone call.